Microfinance means loaning money to very poor people for them to start and grow small businesses. Even the very poor need financial services, but most banks do not view the very poor as viable clients. Popular misconceptions are that the poor will not repay and that the poor will not have the discipline to invest the loan in a business. The experience of Adelante and other microfinance organizations has proved otherwise. For example, as of December, Adelante has maintained a 99.6% loan repayment rate.

The primary objective of Adelante and of microfinance is to help people help themselves. Micro-entrepreneurs earn income to buy better food, to fix their homes, to buy medicine when they are sick, and to send their children to school.

Microfinance is not charity. It is long term sustainable approach to poverty alleviation as opposed to a one-time gift. If you give somebody a fish, you feed them for a day. If you teach them how to fish, you feed them for life. This is the basic idea of microfinance. To learn more about microfinance, check out the Web Links and Bookshelf.